General Business Question

[TheMeatPolice]

Hello everyone! Before I get into my questions I will give you a little information about myself.  I have a relatively good full time job that meets all of my families financial needs but I started selling part time a few weeks ago on ebay as a way to make extra money to help pay off some things early/do extra things with my family. I am not planning on replacing my job but I’m not totally ruling it out either. I set a limit on the out of pocket money that I would invest on sourcing products. I am reinvesting the profits back into more items to build my store. I have 2 goals for myself right now:

1. Have 50 items in my store by January 1. (I have 37 active now.)

2. Net $250 per week by Nov. 1, 2021.

Once I reach goal #1 I will raise the number and adjust the date etc. With goals like this at what point would someone stop reinvesting 100% of the profit and pay themselves? I know that this is will be dependent on a list of infinite variables but what are some of the group’s experiences with building their reselling businesses?

I’ve listened to the podcast from #400 to the current episode and I love it! Is this topic something that has been covered in earlier episodes? That you guys for all that you do!

[almasty]

I would not worry about setting goals for a business/side income that was only started a few weeks ago. I would also not take sales during Q4 as the standard for what your sales will be like next March.

If I was just starting out, I would have fun with it for the first few months and maybe think about what I ultimately wanted to do with the business when it ran more like an actual business.

How you invest/reinvest profits is up to your future goals of your selling – do you want to do this 2 years from now? 5 years from now? Do you just want to pay off bills and fund vacations over the next several months? Just get rid of excess stuff out of your house? I feel these questions are premature for just starting out a few weeks ago.

[TheMeatPolice]

So don’t develop a plan, set goals or treat it like a business. Cool. Got it.

[Timo]

@TheMeatPolice:
If you have a successful life, you already know that having plans and setting goals can be important. I think what @almasty is saying is that you should be more into enjoying eBay first and learning a few things before you get to the point of considering it as a business for yourself.

Typically there are a few lessons to be learned thru hard knocks on eBay. This forum can help keep you positive with some good advice during those hard knocks.

@almasty has been on this forum for years and has 1000’s of items for sale online. So I would consider advice from @almasty as golden. (Same kudos for many other members here.)

[almasty]

Aww shucks, you’re making me blush.

It’s really easy to become enthusiastic over a new venture and think it will go the course – from selling objects online to relationships. Dopamine burst. It’s all the same. People anticipate needs far off in the future when just settling in and getting used to what you’re doing is the key to becoming successful over the long run, if it’s a good fit and if it’s capable of lasting that long.

Goals are fine, goals are great. It’s just odd to start anticipating certain results in the future when you’ve been doing a project for only a few weeks and have barely gotten a handle on the basics. Just have fun. Enjoy the process.

[Old Dad]

I think your goal of $250 per week in 2 years is too conservative, you should be able to do much better than that, but it depends on the time and effort you are willing to put in.

I take 20% of the gross monthly sales for myself. The remaining money goes to pay expenses and to buy more items to list. Everybody is different on this, but this works for me.

[IndySales]

Yeah, I’d just take it easy and see how you feel maybe by the start of Q2 or Q3. You really need to give yourself time to get out of the “honeymoon” period and experience a few pitfalls first to decide whether you want to pursue it further. I’d say it took me about a year to get to a point where I felt I had enough info to make more “business-like” decisions re: investing and growth.

It’s good to have goals, though. I’d personally keep your listing/$ targets in mind if it helps keep you motivated.

[Jay]

Welcome to a new adventure 🙂

I think you’re approaching eBay the correct way by setting a goal to list 50 items. But as you said, it’s difficult to know when to stop investing in inventory because they’re are almost infinite variables.

If you want to net $250/week (or $1000/month), an unscientific survey says you may need to have 1000 items listed. You could get away with less if you spend more time scavenging and only list high dollar, highly sought after items.

You say you have 37 items listed.
–where do you scavenge for these items?
–what kind of items are you listing?
–how much are paying for items
–whats your average price listed?
–Do you have a set schedule for photographing and listing so there’s a consistent stream of new inventory in your store
–how many items have sold so far?
–how did shipping go?

Great to think ahead, but I agree with Almasty that these first few months are really about making sure you have the whole workflow down (scavenging, photographing, listing, storage, shipping, customer service).

If you want to eventually have 500-1000 items in your store, that part needs to be solid. Many new sellers burn out quickly because they dont set up a good foundation.

[TheMeatPolice]

I appreciate all of the feedback so far and I look forward to more!

I understand the concerns about every new adventure having a honeymoon period. I totally get it. This may not work out for me in the long run, only time will tell.

I realize that I have a lot to learn and that there will be ups and down. It’s not all rainbows and butterflies. I set goals to give myself direction instead of wondering aimlessly. It can be overwhelming. For me it’s the same as the question of “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” With my current end goal being the “entire elephant” and my first goal as the “bite #1.” I am sure that these goals will evolve as I gain more experience.

@Old Dad thanks for the input! I consciously set my current end goal conservatively because I want my goals to be realistic and attainable with the time and resources that I have available.

Thanks @Jay for the specific questions regarding my processes. I need to be realistic and more deliberate about developing these if I want this to be successful in the long run.

[Jay]

I’d love to hear more about the specifics of your current process. That’s where this forum could help you if you want some advice.

[TheMeatPolice]

@Jay sorry that I haven’t responded to you sooner. I’ll answer your questions in the order that you asked them in your first response.

– I have scavenged a few items from around the house but most of my items have been from thrift stores. There are 4 thrift stores that I scavenge at regularly during my lunch break (1 per day) but I am in rural area like you all are so only time will tell how good their product restocking will be. I was able to scavenge while out of town for work for a week and it was pretty productive but I very rarely travel for work so that’s not something I can depend on. The best day of scavenging was for me was black Friday. I was able to hit a bunch of stores in one day that I don’t normally go to and most of them were having special sales. I will have to dedicate more time to these stores on the weekends to get to where I want to be. There is at least 1 weekly auction that I plan on checking out in the near future. Also, I’m excited for yard sale season to hit in the spring. A lot of the small towns around me do community wide sales.

– I’m listing a variety of items but the bulk have been clothing, shoes, boots etc. plus a few prices of art and electronics.

– A vast majority of the products I have bought have been under $5, a few at $5-10 and a few at $10-20.

– I have 60 items listed currently, all listed on the higher end, by it now, taking offers. My average listing price is $37 if I exclude 3 pieces of art and an afghan that i have listed high. My average is $68 with those items included.

– I have been talking photos of an evening as I get products and either listing after taking pictures or the next day. It isn’t technically a set schedule but I have been pretty consistent.

– I have sold 9 items total. My average has been $26 plus shipping on all items.

– I haven’t had any shipping issues, yet. 5 have arrived and 4 are in transit. I shipped my first through the global shipping program this morning.

Also, I converted to the lowest level store and opted into the global shipping program last week.

Thanks again for the responses! I look forward learning from this community.

[Jay]

Cool. Sounds like you’re on your way. I think once you get to 200 items listed, you’ll really start getting a sense of what sells.

Since it sounds like you’re focusing on clothes, just know that its a very competitive category. There are individual eBay sellers that list hundreds of clothes each week and sometimes only make $15/item. They make money in bulk. It can be a grind.

But other clothing sellers are very selective and get a much higher dollar amount for their items. I assume they spend a lot more time scavenging.

So it’d be good to figure out what your clothing strategy will be.

[TheMeatPolice]

In addition to my comment on my own pricing, the art and afghan have very few or no sold or listed comps. Definite longtail. Most of my other items are listed on the higher end of sold comps.

[Author]

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